Yoosef Mohamadi
- Editor at Titan Contemporary Publishing
- Sep 17
- 2 min read
Updated: Oct 7
Yoosef Mohamadi is a video projection, installation, and animation artist who has exhibited in the United States, Iran, Chile, and South Korea. Recent exhibitions include Urban Arts Space in Columbus, Ohio, Mechanical Hall Gallery, Recitation Hall Gallery, Taylor Hall Gallery at the University of Delaware in Newark, Delaware Contemporary in Wilmington, CICA Museum in Gimpo, South Korea, Instituto Profesional Arcos in Valparaíso, Chile, dual shows at Rasoul Mehr Gallery in Tehran, and Vela Cultural Center in Tehran. Yoosef’s awards include a full tuition scholarship at the University of Delaware, a fellowship at the Center for Material Culture Studies Delaware Public Humanities Institute, and multiple first place rankings at the Teaching Patterns Festival by the Ministry of Education at Kermashan, Iran.
From ancient monoliths to robotic machinations to rooms constructed into assemblage, the works of Yoosef Mohamadi present a cultural narrative based in Kurdish identity which sometimes incorporates an integration of video projections. The artworks reflect conceptual notions of cultural erasure, assimilation, and displacement, although these expressions are mainly based on his experiences as a Kurd, his visual substance can also be interpreted to express these ideas as fragilities in memory and media manipulation. In regard to his ‘monoliths’, several of his works seem to convey a symbolic shrine which reflects expression of cultural pattern and color, either literally or through projections. His animation work incorporates both assemblage and installation as forms of stock-stuttered reflexes, with integration of performance and Post-Cold War symbolism.
The viewer will often find the concept of ‘vessels’ within Yoosef Mohamadi, either through vases incorporated into installations, glass cases containing earth, or even one case of a monolith with a hollow interior. These ‘vessels’ seem to reflect an intake, a swallowing and containment of individual and collective essence and spirit, much like the mummification process of Ancient Egypt, but brought forth through contemporary art to express specific ideas. Such concepts are based in communicating the life-essence being taken away by governments, institutions, and other cultural entities, which conveys a deep reflection in identity through both a cultural and civic lens.
The Depth of Memory (pictured above) reflects a yearning for earth, truth, and identity. A mechanical construct, a robot, digs for earth. Reaching for soil often has connotations with identifying and having a connection to a homeland. In essence, the work is deeply reflective of Kurdish identity and cultural connections. The machine seems to reflect the endless struggle to attain independence to the point hands have become sore and a robot needs to continue the work. Or perhaps the mechanical hand could be a reflection of a seemingly futile effort in obtaining land.
Yoosef Mohamadi communicates with a deep impact on the psychological, sociological, and cultural implications through integrative practices based in installation, video, robotics, and animation. His approach contains a combinative effort to search for a sense of truth through both a cultural and collective civic lens. Through a practice and expression in concepts based in sustainment of personal freedoms and independent purpose, his art reveals dichotomies between both repression and release, tyranny and liberation.
